Fly High
by Frostedwitch
Summary: For JackRabbit Week 2017: Wings Jack was born with wings, after a unpleasant run in with some village children left his wings broken for the past three hundred years he doesn't want to show the Guardians, who of course find out. Bunny decides he has to fix them.


The wind ruffling through his hair was extremely comforting, Jack gave a sigh and clutched tighter at the brown aged cloak around his shoulders, keeping it pinned down around him. He slid off from his perch on the back of the sleigh after watching his beloved town of Burgess, his only home, disappear from sight to sit in the back seat beside Bunny.

"Ya did good mate" the Pooka offered him a sincere smile, Jack could only nod in response as he curled up on his side and tucked himself up under the cloak as much as he could. The puffed up fluff ball sounded truthfully grateful and at any other time he would have mocked him for it, along with a prepared speech on how great he was thrown in for good measure but at the moment he really just wanted to rest, mockery can always wait until later after all.

"Thanks" he yawned, rubbing his cheek against the scratchy and heavy cotton, what he'd give for a bed right about now, or a good pile of soft fluffy snow. Hopefully whatever plans North had for them back at the Pole wouldn't take too long.

"Jack, will your horses be alright?" Tooth's voice made him open his eyes that had only just drooped closed. He peered at her sitting beside North and looking back at him.

"Sure, they know the way home.." he yawned again, he had actually forgotten about his sleigh carved from magic ice that he had left in the street outside Jamie's house, his only mode of transportation that he had stolen-borrowed, it was complicated, from the Snow Queen years ago, either way it was now his magically flying sleigh and he wasn't giving it back, nope, never.

He closed his eyes again and sighed, now if only his back would stop hurting then he would be completely comfortable, he shifted a little and rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the pain.

After a while the sleigh descended, coming down to land with a jolt, making the boy grumble as the reindeer trotted back towards the stables.

North dropped the reins and heaved himself out of his seat. "Ah come friends, we will have whiskey and make merry"

After watching the other three disembark Jack huffed, sliding out of the sleigh, landing heavily on his bare feet and using his staff to hold himself up. Grumbling under his breath he followed them through the stables and into the workshop, on any other day he would have been thrilled to be able to see inside the famous North Pole again, especially considering how many years he had spent trying to break in, but for now the pain and tiredness was becoming too much. He jerked his shoulders back as he followed them, trying to pop the bones but to no use, the space between his shoulder blades bordering on agonisingly sore.

His legs didn't seem to want to work particularly well either, his feet dragging underneath him and his knees shuddering with every step. Apparently going three days with no sleep and then into a powerful battle wasn't good for one's body, who knew?

"Jack... are you ok?" Tooth called, he looked up and realised they had all stopped ahead of him, concern on each face.

"Sure, I'm good" he nodded with a wave of his hand, while his other clenched harder at his staff.

"Really? Cause ya look like ya 'bout ta drop" Bunny frowned, an eyebrow raised in disbelief.

"I said I'm fine, Fluffball" he growled back, his face somehow even paler and he wobbled a little where he stood.

North approached him. "Come, we'll get you settled in a room and check"

"No, nope I'm good, thank you" Jack backed away a few steps.

"Frostbite did you forget that swan dive into a dumpster ya did? Ya ain't fine" Bunny huffed, folding his arms in annoyance.

"How about you back off and mind your own business Cotton Tail"

Sandy flashed symbols at a pace too fast to really understand, before a bunch of question marks appeared above his head.

"He took on Pitch alone and was thrown out of his sleigh from the air" Tooth answered him, the small man looking very alarmed and turning back to Jack with a worried face.

"Look guys, I'm fine, really" he tried backing away from all four of them as they backed him up to a wall of the corridor they occupied. "North, North! What are you-" with that the Guardian of Wonder had placed his large hands down on the smaller boy, ready to pick him up and carry him, when one hand landed firmly between his shoulder blades. "Argh!" he cried, the pain blazing down his spine and his knees buckling under him. Only North griping his arm tightly saved him from falling to the floor. "Don't touch my back..." he hissed through clenched teeth.

"Oh for cryin' out loud, c'mere Frosty" Bunny rolled his eyes, ducking in to snatch him up. "I ain't gonna touch yer back" he growled back when Jack tried to flail away from him and with one swift motion had tucked his shoulder against the boy's stomach, wrapped an arm around the back of his knees and lifted him over his shoulder, holding him without putting any pressure on his back. "Where to mate?" he turned to North, waiting for direction while the Winter Spirit squealed and wriggled where he was.

North beamed a smile back at him. "This way" he spoke leading them towards the guest rooms, Bunny, Tooth and Sandy trailing behind him, the Fairy Queen bending down to scoop up Jack's staff from where he had dropped it as she went.

Jack grumbled and moaned the entire way to an previously unused guest room, North throwing open the door and leading them all inside. Bunny walked over to the large four-poster bed that had heavy burgundy sheets and placed the boy down. Jack scrambled a bit, shifting the length of his cloak out from under him and adjusting himself to sit hunched on his knees. He peered around at them suspiciously.

"Now do not be worrying Jack, we just want to help" North soothed "Now if you show what hurts, we'll fix, you'll be fighting fit in no time da?"

Jack looked away from him, stubbornly staring at the soft bed sheets underneath him. "Thanks but I said I'm fine"

"Jack please, you're clearly in pain, all you have to do is take off your cloak and show us where your back hurts" Tooth implored, smiling caringly at him as she placed his staff down beside him. Take his cloak off, like that was an easy to do thing, it was exactly the thing he didn't want to do, he didn't want them to see what was wrong with him. He may have forgotten his parents these last three hundred years but the warnings they gave him had stayed in his subconscious, keep the cloak on, keep his secret safe.

He glanced around at them, Bunny stood with his arms folded and an unimpressed look, Sandy caught his eyes and gave him a smile and a thumbs up, North watching patiently and back to Tooth, there was something about her that made him feel safer, BabyTooth sitting on her shoulder and cooing at him. He sighed, knowing he wasn't really going to get out of this and reached for the cloaks fixture around his throat, his nimble fingers working the button free and swiftly pulling the cloak away from his body, letting it drop in a heap beside him.

There was a collective intake of breath and he could hear sand swirling through the air frantically but he refused to look at them, he didn't want to see the looks in their eyes as they realised how much of a freak he was.

"Didn't know ya had wings, mate" Bunny spoke up first, sounding a little lost. The boy merely nodded, pulling his arms in close to his body, wanting to curl up.

"But why all the ice?" North questioned.

"Sweet-Tooth, … what's wrong with them?" Tooth followed up. "... Did you freeze them after the dumpster?"

"No..." Jack uttered, flexing his shoulders. Large wings were pinned down against his back, lopsided falling down in a tangle, a covering of ice to keep them in place and ward off feeling in them, his feathers pure white tipped with silver. "Before Pitch"

"... But they're all twisted"

"I had noticed" he frowned, this was it, he was going to be thrown back out of the Guardians, of course they wouldn't want someone as ruined as he was.

"First we must get ice off" North spoke, a hand stroking at his beard, Jack looked at him surprised, shocked at the possibility of them really wanting to still help him after they had seen.

"Wait? What?" He recoiled "That's not gonna happen" he hissed, glaring back at the three Guardians... three? Where was... He let out a squeak when Sandy's fingers touched him with the utmost care, gently brushing against a tuft of feathers that stuck out from the ice, the elder spirit looking sad but showing a snowflake with feathery wings in a bath tub, little trails of sand to suggest steam, the bath tub disappearing and the snowflake flapping it's wings.

"Sandy is right, a hot bath will melt it" North agreed.

"...Uh, Jack Frost does not do hot anything" the Winter Spirit glowered, with great emphasis on the second part of his name.

"But we need to get the ice off somehow" Tooth worried.

"How about we don't and say we did"

Bunny flicked his ears back. "Is this why ya always such a uptight bastard? Maybe if ya unlock all that tension in yer back ya might actually chill out" Jack narrowed his eyes at the Pooka, that fluffy douche canoe didn't just make a pun, did he? The elder Guardian caught his gaze, a smirk playing at his muzzle, he did dammit.

"Boys!" Tooth called sternly, the two of them pausing to look at her. "Jack please, just let us help"

He chewed his lower lip, eyebrows drawn in tightly. "Fine" he huffed.

North grinned and left with plans to go find some supplies, leaving the four other Guardians in the room.

"Alright Snowflake" Bunny began, approaching the bed and placing his bandolier pouch on the bed, his paws routing through it. "Yer gonna want ta drink this" he held out a corked vial to him.

Jack pouted, his fingers pausing in their task of idly picking at the binding around his left calf. "What for?"

"Cause yer about to defrost and I bet ya haven't done that for some time, huh? Yer wings probably ain't had a good blood supply all the time yer frozen up like that, gonna be the worst case of pins an' needles ya ever experienced"

The Winter Spirit sighed, knowing he was right. He reached over and snatched the open vial and downed it's contents in one gulp, it catching at the back of his throat and sending him into something of a coughing fit, that was a lot stronger than he was expecting.

"How long have you had your wings frozen?" Tooth gently questioned, all three of them seeming to suspect that it had been longer than the few days they had known him.

Jack shook his head, whatever that rabbit had made him drink was actually incredibly potent, his head starting to already feel fuzzy. "A while"

"How longs a while, Jack?" Tooth continued, her suspicions growing ever more, for immortals 'a while' was a very loose definition of time.

"... Maybe like ten years... maybe more?"

"Bloody hell" Bunny cursed, the other two looking just as bothered as he was, Tooth's feathers fluffing up and Sandy creating an exclamation point above his head again.

Jack ignored their worry, until North returns followed by Phil, between them they had brought a heap of towels and he can see the steam rising off them from here and a bucket of equally steamy water, he wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"Ok mate, if ya lay on yer front for us, we'll sort ya out" Bunny spoke, the boy frowns again, out of all of them why was it him that was taking control in this part. However the concoction had made him feel as if all the fight in him had been sucked out, damned that rabbit. Many pairs of hands guided him to lay down on the bed, his arms crossed beneath his head and cheek resting comfortably.

"Sorry Sweet-Tooth, this might be a bit uncomfortable for you" Tooth soothed as they spread the first hot towel out across the frozen mass that had become of his wings. At the first touch his fingers gripped the bedding, his teeth clenched tightly. Soon they had piled more on top of him, covering him from his shoulders to where the mass ended laying against the back of his ankles.

"It's too hot" he groaned, his face damp from attempted frost that just melted as soon as it appeared, everything was wet, his wings melting, the frosted patterns across his clothing, even his hair sagging from its frozen spikes.

"It's ok, just breathe" Tooth consoled him, her small hand slipping into one of his and holding. He did as she said, his mouth open wide and harshly gasping in air

"That's it mate, just a bit more and it'll be over" Bunny spoke up, sweeping the boy's wet hair away from his face, his paw remaining on his head, fingers gently kneading his scalp.

"Sandy can put you to sleep if you like?" North offered, the small golden man standing beside him nodding enthusiastically.

"No" Jack growled out, half determined not to appear any more weak and pathetic to them than he already was and half afraid of what they may say about or do to him if he was unconscious. Baby-Tooth flew down to land beside his face, one tiny hand pressed to his much larger one, trying to offer what support she could.

After a while it wasn't only the temperature getting to him, he rolled his shoulders, where his wings rooted into his back beginning to burn as he defrosted and his heart was able to pump blood into his wings for the first time in a decade, feeling coming back painfully. He grumbled and shifted under his covering of towels, his wings truly starting to warm up now, the bedsheets soaked below him from the ice.

"Da, all done" North concluded, after lifting up a section of the towels and peeking under, the four of them promptly stripping them away off the boy, dumping them in a pile on the floor to deal with later. Jack wiggled in his new found freedom, his skin tinted pink from the heat and his feathers wet but at last free of ice, the wretched wings crumpled flat against his back in a pile of feathers.

"Not yet mate, it's givin' me a migrane just lookin at all the knots in yer back" Bunny said, shifting to sit hunched right by the boys side, pushing the feathers aside to look down the length of his spine. He could see how tight the muscles were even with a shirt on and without asking he pressed his paws into the space between his shoulder blades, digging into the solid muscle.

"Ah!" Jack wailed, the soaked cotton of his shirt providing no barrier between his skin and the Pooka's paws. "St-stop it! That hurts!"

"Yer wound up tighter than a clock mate, we gotta get yer back sorted"

Tooth had taken a hold of his hand again and was whispering soft reassurances while the Pooka worked on his muscles, Jack cursing and spitting when Bunny found a new knot to work on, his furry digits skillfully digging in and manipulating until the tension eased. The air catching in his throat and eyes watering, the pain each time almost unbearable until his muscles relaxed and suddenly he felt like he breathe again.

Bunny wrapped his paws around the boy's left shoulder, pulling and manually rotating it, ears locked forward focused on his work. "There that's gotta feel better, right mate?"

"Mmmhm" Jack grunted, his face hidden in his arms and Tooth idly brushing her fingers through his hair.

Bunny looked back to the crumpled pile of wings, his paws reaching out to touch them "Can I check yer wings?"

Jack only gave a half shrug in reply, taking it as a yes the Pooka gently moved his paws to the wings root, fingers still carefully feeling and kneading. Instead of strong sturdy bones under his touch he found skin that gave way, crunching under the surface. He moved across to the other and found exactly the same, the bones were crushed. "Jack?..." he asked, the name catching roughly,

"What?"

He continued down, feeling his way down along the long humerus smoothly until it bent sharply to the side in a completely unnatural way. "...Your bones are shattered..."

"Thanks for the update Fluffball" Jack snarked back, pressing his head against Tooth's hands.

North stepped closer, making eye contact with the Pooka who gestured to how the length of wing in his paws could bend in a stomach turning way. "... when did this happen?"

"About three hundred years ago" Jack spoke, like it was no big deal. Tooth choked out a sob beside him, before catching herself, turning away from them and rubbing at her eyes.

After taking a deep breath Bunny set back to his task, taking a hold of the wings to unfurl them as much as he could, his paws rubbing trying to get some blood flow back as he prised apart joints and broken bends that hadn't moved in at least a decade, the wings had been bundled up and bent over a few times to compact them, his poor feathers tattered and ruined underneath. Soon he had spread the sad things out as much as he could, the bones finally laying splayed out flat in their original way, if only not connected much anymore, the wings stretched out across the entire width of the bed, long flight feathers brushing over the floor, they were incredible.

Bunny sat back, his ears folding down as he looked, not liking what he saw at all. In his absence North and Sandy had picked up dry towers and began to gently wipe down Jack's wings, Tooth idly moving down to work her dainty fingers through the feathers, grooming and smoothing them out.

"Can ya... can ya try to move them fer me?"

"Nope" Jack sighed, popping the end of the word before sighing again. His muscles at the base visibly twitching but the wings remained as lifeless as ever.

"Can you feel them at all?" Tooth gently asked.

"Yeah, but mostly they just hurt"

"Is why you kept them on ice?" North asked, his large hands idly stroking a feather, Jack nodded.

"No offence, but this game of twenty questions is getting kinda boring" he huffed, finding his elbows and knees and pushing himself up, the other Guardians backing off to give him space. He sat up, wings collapsing haphazardly with their own weight, resembling more like a tattered feather cloak than the beautiful things they once were. Bunny winced watching the broken bones bending over each other again.

North looked between them all. "We will leave you to rest"

Jack grumbled in acknowledgement, with a touch of his hand all the water that had soaked into the bed and his ancient cotton shirt turned to ice, crumbling off as he dragged himself up and wiggled under the sheets to lay on his side, his wings a tangle across the bed behind him as the others let themselves out, Tooth however, remaining. "You're still here" he accused, one arm slipping under the plush pillow he found and holding it comfortingly.

"Jack..." she began, stepping back towards him and noticeably not using her own wings. "... I was wondering, what are you?" she questioned as gently as she could.

"I'm Jack Frost" he replied, a little scathingly, not bothering to lift his head to look at her.

She stopped at the other side of the bed, his back still to her, purple eyes glistening as they roamed over his feathers. "... I'm a hybrid, my mother was from a race of bird women and my father was human..."

He huffed, knowing she was trying to lead him into a conversation and noticing the past use for her parents, clearly not around anymore either. "... So I'm gonna take a wild stab in the dark and guess you also know what it's like when humans don't like something different?"

"Yes, I do" was all she uttered, she only knew all too well the cruelty of humans, having lost her dear parents to it.

"... I don't know what dad was, just that he had wings too, he and mom always told me to keep them hidden... I should have been more careful but … I've been told I'm something of a show off" he grinned, despite himself. "Turns out the other kids really didn't like my wings and that sticks and stones really can break your bones"

"... I'm sorry..."

He shrugged. "Mom and dad found me in a ditch in the woods, concussed and my wings busted, we had to move to another village" He finished, trying to sound like he didn't care. After that day he had never shown his wings to anyone outside of his family, they had never healed and he never flew again. He briefly cast a longing thought to his sister, he hoped she never had suffered anything like that during her life, but he wouldn't know, when he had died her wings were still too small to fly, tufts of endearing brown baby feathers that were no use at saving herself from the ice breaking underneath her feet, he had taken her place, his damned dead weight wings dragging him down into frozen water.

With a few squeaks he realised Baby-Tooth was still there too, her tiny body shuffling across his shoulder, over his neck and to slid down under the sheet with him, pressing herself against his collar bone, cooing soothingly at him. "Oh hey..."

"Goodnight Jack" Tooth spoke, tears heavy in her voice, turning off the light behind her and leaving him to sleep. It wasn't long until he was fast asleep, the smaller fairy cheeping in her sleep beside him.

The morning light pouring in through the large windows woke him up, his jaw cracking with a yawn as he numbly rubbed a fist against his eyes.

"Mornin' mate" Bunny's familiar voice spoke, from where the Pooka sat on a chair beside the bed, focused idly on a sketchbook in his paws and a charcoal pencil moving across the paper.

Jack blinked, the light too much for his eyes for a moment as he squinted at his fellow Guardian. "...Watching me sleep? That's a whole new level of weird for you Flopsy" He sat up, arms stretching high above his head, glancing to make sure he hadn't crushed the small fairy, who still snoozed on happily. "You drawing me like one of your French girls?" he beamed a shit eating grin.

"What?"

"Oh come on! You haven't seen Titanic?" he pouted, how was he meant to make good jokes if these guys hadn't taken in any popular media within the last century.

"The unsinkable ship that was somehow sank by ice?" Bunny raised an eyebrow, the accusation lightly there, Jack couldn't tell if it was in jest or not.

"You think that was me?" he bit back.

The Pooka's brow didn't move, but his lips twitched in something of a smile "Everyones always saying ya did, but I saw ya with those kids, ya ain''t got in ya ta hurt people like that"

Jack paused "Oh... well yeah I wasn't anywhere near it at the time, it was a horrendously designed mistake but notice how one ship goes down after an iceberg and the guy nobody likes who makes ice gets the blame, no one ever accused me when the other two sister ships went down, honestly the WhiteStar Line owed me a huge apology"

"Sounds like they did" Bunny nodded along.

Jack coughed, uncomfortable "Uh... so what are you drawing?"

Bunny shrugged and turned his sketchbook around for him to see "Just patterns" The page covered in a collection of swirling lines and shapes, some almost like the Winter Spirit's frost and snowflakes, he placed the pencil and sketchbook down "Ya feeling any better?"

The boy cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders, testing the pressure. "Yeah actually, I feel great... uh thanks" frost tinted at his cheeks.

"Good, just don't let it get that bad again and don't freeze yerself up, come back to me if ya need another go" Bunny glanced away from him, nose twitching embarrassingly but he still seemed genuine

Four months later found them both in the Warren, Jack laying down shirtless in the warm grass while Bunny soothed his aching muscles. It had become a weekly occurrence, sometimes more than weekly. Now that he knew what to look for the Pooka realised how much pain Jack had to be constantly in, even though he acted otherwise, the way he pranced about, throwing his self around, flopping down into seats during the Guardian meetings, letting out huffs and quickly concealed pained grimaces when he crushed his wings under his weight. How when they had their arguments, something that recently had become more for banter than malice, Jack was more likely to be quicker to anger when he hadn't let his wings out in a while.

It confused the Pooka, they were becoming much closer in a short amount of time, all of them were, despite knowing the other Guardians for centuries they spent more days together now, Jack had brought back fun into their lives, not that he was ever going to tell the little larrikin that himself. These times spent alone between the two of them had become a thing he very much looked forward to, they would chat, about all manner of things, Jack under all that 'I don't care' attitude had some good redeemable features. He was a lot smarter than anyone had taken him for, he had a natural ease with the children, who had all grown to adore him and most of all he had a heart made of gold once you could find it hidden away in his ice.

Jack sighed, dozing lightly under Bunny's touch, his wings, well they broke the Pooka's heart, they were something so precious, they should have been beautiful but here they were so utterly destroyed. They gave the boy constant pain and it wasn't fair, it just bloody wasn't.

He glanced at Jack, who was happily resting and then back to the wings, the bent bones and feathers, it wasn't fair and he couldn't stand to see his friend this way anymore. He placed his paws flat on the wings and pulled at the very core of his magic, he was a spirit of life and growth, what was the bloody point of that if he couldn't help people he cared about? Green sparks grew from his paws as he pulled more, he could do this, he would do this, for Jack. Sparks danced across the feathers, Jack startling awake as he shrieked in fear.

He could fix him, he could.

I believe, I believe, I believe.

With the first spell the sparks grew blinding, the light too much to bare.

"What are you doing?!" Jack screamed, tearing away from him, the light dying down and sparks gone and a very upset looking boy glaring at him, his arms and legs under him crouched like an animal ready to flee.

But Bunny wasn't looking at his frightened face, his eyes focused just beyond that where his wings lifted out, feathers fluffed up in his fear.

"What did you do to me?!" Jack snarled.

"I did it!" The Pooka grinned.

"Did what?!" He pulled himself up, wings fluttering as he did. "You better tell me right …. now..." he paused, the weight on his back different, he jerked his neck sharply to the side, trying to see over his shoulder, he twitched his muscles, his wings moving in response. "... What"

"They're a beaut" Bunny was still grinning and it was true, the once mangled wings once again sitting nicely, his feathers soft and new.

Jack bit his lower lip, eyes watering dangerously as he opened his wings out by himself for the first time in three hundred years and stretching out to their full span. "I … I don't ...why?" was all he could manage, lifting them up and down in a few practice motions. Without letting Bunny reply he gave one powerful flap, lifting himself off the ground into the air, each pull of his restored wings taking him higher and higher, his dad had been right, once you learnt to fly you never forgot. He soared over the fields and trees of the Warren, his heart beating wildly in his chest, letting out a whoop he looped over himself, his wings tucking in as he fell back down, aiming for the Pooka watching him on the ground.

He caught himself, wings flapping to keep him just above the soft earth "Thank you" he breathed, tears down his face. Pressing a kiss to the fluffy muzzle in his joy, he remembered himself, about to pull away when Bunny's arms wrapped around to hold him there, kissing back happily. He grinned into the kiss, wings curling around both of them.


End file.
